“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
Look, Buck knew Maddie’s opinion on his job. Firefighting was a good job, honourable, but she absolutely hated it. The dangers, the risks, so many things could get him killed in this line of work, but she lived with it, because he loved it.
Over the past few months though, Buck had been nothing but careful at work, due to a certain growing bump that belonged to his sister. He had made a promise. To himself, no one else, but it was a promise nonetheless, a promise to be the very best uncle he could be. And of course, that required him to be around.
Everyone knows how the universe works. It hits the people that deserve happiness with a truckload of pain, as the Buckley siblings were about to find, on the night of Maddie’s final shift at the call centre.
“911, what’s your emergency.”
“There’s a fire.”
“What?”
A tiny little 7 year old voice barely audible through the line.
“Mummy said to go to the bathroom, she said it would be safer. She and daddy are trying to fix it.”
“Can you tell me where you are?”
“Um… Oh I remember!”
Maddie breathed a sigh of relief as she tapped out the address proudly rattled off by the little boy.
“Okay, help is coming, just don’t go near the fire, can you do that?”
“Yep!”
Help was on the way in the form of her boyfriend and brother’s team, but she didn’t know how she felt about that.
It seemed like a pretty simple case. An accidental fire, maybe a cigarette butt not fully put out, or a barbecue still smouldering, but the house was burning as they arrived, and they got straight to work.
The fire hadn’t been going too long before it was put out, with minimal damage to the property, personal belongings, and anyone involved. A pretty simple case until it wasn’t.
Because unfortunately for everyone involved, this was actually an active robbery.
Of course the only way that was discovered was when a loud gunshot rang through the air.
“Role call!”
“Eddie.”
“Chimney and Hen.”
“Hey... um.”
They turned to Buck, exiting the house through the front door, pushing the little boy out past the doorway before dropping to his knees, hand pressed over a quickly widening red stain. Phone, long forgotten by the boy as he ran out to his parents, now landed by Buck’s hands as he struggled to breathe.
“Buck? Buck!”
“Ma-Maddie.”
Bobby had to pull back practically the rest of the team, trying to rush to his aid, completely forgetting the armed gunner still within the building. They couldn’t go, they couldnt help him. Not yet, not without being gunned down themselves.
“Buck, what’s going on?”
Maddie’s panicked voice was the only thing filling Buck ears as his breathing became difficult, trying to focus on halting the blood flow from wherever it was in his stomach.
“It’s okay, I’ll be okay-”
“Buck don’t lie to me, I can hear you.”
“Look, I tried to be careful, I tried to keep myself safe-”
“Buck-”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I couldn’t stay.”
A shout of confirmation cued the rest of the 118 forwards, hurriedly assessing Buck, trying to get him up, to the waiting ambulance, to get him to safety, relative or otherwise. He was going to make it, they would make sure of it, even if they had to fight the grim reaper as it came for his soul. Buck was going to make it.
“Maddie, Maddie, i made a promise to myself that i would be the best uncle ever to your little girl, and, and I’m sorry that i cou-”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You’re going to make it out alive. You’ll be okay.”
Buck’s job was way too risky. And Maddie was yet again off to the hospital.
